My mom was about that size. She was born on a farm in Texas in 1912; they placed her in a shoe box and put her by the fire place. No doctors around. After working to save my grandmother, her aunt thought to look at the baby to see if it was still alive...and she was! They gave her sugar water to survive. She was so small, when you placed a tea cup over her head, it completely hid it. She lived to marry and have two very healthy children.

Premature grandson changed, immediately and forever, all my stupid Pro Choice ideas! I tell anyone who will listen to go see some preemies (if they can figure out how to get in) and then talk to me. It ought to be part of every young persons education to be taken to a preemie nursery.

My eight year old was 3 pounds at birth.I was so afraid for her because I never saw a premature baby before.Thank God They have the medical know how to help these tiny babies survive and live normal lives.

27
posted on 12/27/2004 7:07:39 AM PST
by rdcorso
(Did I mention I was in Vietnam where I lost my backbone? Spineless John)

I think this is the picture that was being talked about... it was an ectopic pregnancy, removed at 6 weeks.(According to the info I have read).

"This is a picture of a baby that was removed from the mother as part of an operation to resolve an ectopic pregnancy. The baby was photographed in the University of Minnesota and was no more than 6 weeks old."

Visiting a NICU is about enough to make anyone cry. My son was full term and big (almost 9 pounds) but has seizure disorder so he was sent to a NICU a few hours after he was born. There were 10 other babies there, only one other of which was full term (had hepatitis IIRC). The rest were all crack babies - tiny, premature, and with the most pitiful shivering and crying imaginable. The only other parent present was the lady with the full-term baby. I do not know where any of the other mothers were, but they may well have been incarcerated.

33
posted on 12/27/2004 8:04:08 AM PST
by RebelBanker
(To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women!)

One great uncle (born in the 1880s) was 2 pounds at birth, and he, like others mentioned here, lived in the warming oven of the wood cookstove for several months.

One winter when he was in his 60s, he decided upon a goal: he wanted to be able to say he'd gone from 2 pounds, to 200. So, he spent all winter relaxing and eating, hit 200 pounds by March, went back to his normal diet, and immediately dropped back to 140... but he had reached his goal.

Amazing images... we're at 8 months gestation now, and our older children are really fascinated by unborn baby pictures, because they like to know what their sister looks like, how big she is, etc...

35
posted on 12/27/2004 9:15:07 AM PST
by Missus
(We're not trying to overpopulate the world, we're just trying to outnumber the idiots.)

I was a preemie (3 lbs. 3 oz) in the early 50's when a lot of them either didn't survive or developed blindness in the eyes due to the hot lights of the incubators. Fortunately, my hospital was aware of the problem and protected my eyes for the several weeks I was in an incubator. However, I met another woman my age, also a preemie, who had very limited vision, almost legally blind, so I wonder if her problem was due to incubator lights.

I came upon this very old thread doing a search for something else on FR. Got caught up in this discussion of preemies, and the exchange between the two of you. It perfectly illustrates one of my favorite cinematic moments: A scene in a hospital between a doctor and a mentally retarded man as they regard a preemie in an incubator. It's in Werner Herzog's movie "Stroszek" It is simply a transcendent scene.See it if you can. BTT

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